Here is a insightful piece by my friend Chandra Maharzan on why poor /developing countries are not developing and what is wrong with all the help that is being given to us. He questions the way we think about the “aid industry”.

Chandra writes:

Why poor countries never develop?

I think I just found an answer to that.

This doesn’t necessarily agree with your opinion though. Its all my personal view.

The simple logic is – If I find a 1000 rupee note on the street (oh lucky me), I am sure I will misuse it either by drinking or by giving a party to friends or just misplace it. But if it takes me a full day to get that thousand rupee note, I am sure I am going to think what I need to spend that on. You just become ‘wise’ with that money.

There is a beggar, no matter how much money you give its just no sufficient for him. Well, money is never sufficient to anyone, is it? He will always live a beggar life. I am sure some beggar earn more than those hardworking coolies.

I have lived a ‘poor’ life. Not a rupee to spend on ‘extra’ things. I cried when I couldn’t have Rs 500 to take some music lesson when I was 16. The good thing about living poor is you learn how important money is and when you make some money, you spend it wisely. You become virtually rich. Storing bit by bit and then when you want to get something, you have it in store. You become wiser.

Watching Discovery Channel most of the time, I have come to know why Europeans developed their brain so fast so sophisticated than people who lived near the equator such as Africa or South East Asia / South Asia. That was because, people near the equator lived rich. There was no scarcity of food, water, cold, etc. Whereas in Europe, they lived in poverty. Snow covered most of the time, cold, hunger, less food. In other words, when they lived in this environment, they learnt how to ‘save’, adapt and how to best live their lives that way. They were thinking all the time. Their brains developed as time passed and they were wiser as time went on.

So, the basic thing is when you live in poverty (that is real poverty), you know how to become rich.

In developing countries, there are millions / billions of dollars that come in in the name of helping the poor or eradicating poverty (aid). It might be good intention or bad I won’t comment on that. But the thing is, there is someone who is helping those people. So, there is no real poverty here. And when you have someone there, you never learn to live by yourself. You always live in Poverty and you become Greedy. You always look for someone to help (you). When you see your friend getting help, then you also join him…

And it just grows…

here is a thought: How about risking it all and leaving us on our own, for once ? let us become ‘truely” poor so that we can start learning how to become prosperous. With your ‘aid’, we prolly won’t try.